NorthEast Radio Watch 2/12: Cox/Clear Channel Swap in Salt City

[fybush@world.std.com (Scott D Fybush)]

*Clear Channel's purchase of Jacor will bring the combined company
into a new upstate NEW YORK market: Syracuse.  The two companies had
to spin off holdings in several markets that would have put them over
the ownership limits, and so they engineered a three-way deal that
gives Cox Broadcasting some of the "excess" stations in
Tampa-St. Petersburg and Louisville.  In exchange, Cox gives Clear
Channel cash -- and its Syracuse radio group, the market's ratings and
revenue leader.

The new Clear Channel Syracuse group includes news-talk WSYR (570),
sports WHEN (620), AC WYYY (94.5), top-rated country WBBS (104.7
Fulton), and CHR WWHT (107.9).  It also gives the combined Clear
Channel-Jacor group strong positions in every market along I-90 from
Syracuse through Utica and Albany to Springfield, Mass (assuming Clear
Channel consummates its pending purchase of Dame Media, that is).

Elsewhere in the state, there are some changes brewing around 98 MHz.
We'll start in Salamanca, where WQRT (98.3) has been granted a doubling of
its power, from 1600 to 3200 watts.  Up Route 17 in Bath, WVIN, also
on 98.3, gets to raise its power from 2750 to 4500 watts.  And WNYR
(98.5 Waterloo) now holds a CP to go from 1450 to 3200 watts.  

The FCC has reinstated several CPs that were accidentally cancelled
last week, including that of WWRL (1600 New York) to go to 25
kilowatts by day, as well as WCIY (88.9 Canandaigua)'s to increase
power from 70 to 500 watts.  At the same time, the Commission
cancelled the never-built CP that would have given WEHH (1590 Elmira
Heights-Horseheads) a directional array and night power.  

The morning team of Kevin Baker and Geri Richards is out at Albany
classic rocker WXCR (102.3 Ballston Spa); no word on who's next in
this high-turnover spot.

Up north, the students at SUNY Plattsburgh will officially inaugurate
their second radio service this Saturday.  Closed-circuit "WARP Radio"
will join licensed WQKE (93.9) as a student voice on campus; they're
hoping WARP can get a broadcast license someday as well.

A few new radio spots on the Web: Ogdensburg's WPAC
<http://www.93pac.com> and WB cable affiliate "WBWT"
<http://www.wbwt.com> in Watertown are both new to the Net.  And
much to NERW's delight, very cool AAA station WDST (100.1
Woodstock) <http://www.wdst.com> now has a Webcast; guess what we've
been listening to here at NERW Central?

A correction: Buzz Brindle is the PD of several Albany stations...but
not WPYX (106.5).  John Cooper still holds *that* job.

And we remember Dick Tobias, the curmudgeonly newsman and commentator
who spent four decades in Rochester TV and radio, most notably at
WBBF, WHAM, WVOR, and WHEC.  Tobias died Thursday (2/11) of a heart
attack.  He was 71.  Funeral plans had not been finalized at press
time.

*What format will end up on the newest FM signal in Worcester,
MASSACHUSETTS?  There's no way to tell from the six songs that have
been repeating on WQVR (100.1 Southbridge) since it signed back on
with higher power this week from its new transmitter site overlooking
Worcester from the west -- unless someone can claim that Frank Sinatra
and Will Smith both fit in one format!

The FCC is giving Edmund Dinis six more months to build WLAW (1270
North Dartmouth), much to the dismay of a competing Portuguese
broadcaster in the area.  Dinis owns WJFD (97.3 New Bedford), the
dominant Portuguese-language station in the Southeastern Massachusetts
market, and for years, he's been fighting James and Robert Karam, who
own a Portuguese newspaper and two radio stations (English-language
WSAR 1480 and Portuguese-language WHTB 1400) in Fall River.  This
week, the FCC dismissed the Karams' last-ditch attempt to stop Dinis
from building four towers on Copicut Hill for WLAW.  James Karam tells
the Providence Journal-Bulletin that WLAW will "disrupt the patterns
that are already here" by signing on (which is what NERW thought
competition was supposed to do), while Dinis tells the paper that
moving WJFD's programming from his class B FM to the new AM will
somehow increase its audience from 200,000 to 3 million.  Dinis also
confirmed for the Journal-Bulletin the long-held speculation that WJFD
will become an English-language soft rock station aimed at Providence
once the AM signs on.  For its part, NERW thinks Providence itself
ought to have a Portuguese station again, something that's been
missing since WRCP (1290) became public-radio WRNI last year.  In the
meantime, we'll sit back with a plate of linguica and enjoy the
fight...

Any Bay State stations ignoring the EAS requirements, watch out!  We
hear the FCC has been conducting surprise inspections at several
Eastern Massachusetts stations to make sure the EAS equipment is
hooked up and working.  Maybe while they're at it, they'll hear the
Spanish-language pirate we're told is now operating on 94.3 in
Springfield.

Supporters of legal LPFM will gather next weekend in Allston, as LPFM
advocate Steven Provizer holds what he's calling a "town meeting" for
LPFM proponents to work out a game plan to push their cause through
the upcoming FCC deliberations (and past strong GOP opposition in the
senate) and into reality.  For what it's worth, the FCC's own studies
say the Boston area could be home to anywhere from 0 to 4 LPFMs,
depending on whether second- and third-adjacent channels are
protected.  Also unclear is whether class D stations on commercial
frequencies, like Northeastern's WRBB (104.9 Boston) and Brandeis'
WBRS (100.1 Waltham) would have protection from the LPFMs that would
likely try to apply for those channels if allowed.

What ever happened to...?:  We hear former WHDH-TV (Channel 7)
husband-and-wife anchor team John Marler and Cathy Marshall have
landed in Portland, Oregon, where they anchor the 11 PM news at ABC
affiliate KATU (Channel 2).

A small correction: We really should have known better when we sniped
at Boston Magazine last time out.  Westinghouse bought CBS first, in
the fall of 1995, and then swallowed up Infinity.  And while we should
have known better, since we worked there at the time, it still doesn't
change our point that a reshuffling of owners in Pittsburgh and New
York had no effect on *local* ownership in Boston.

It was a somber week at Greater Media stations in Boston and other
markets, as staffers mourned executive VP Tom Milewski, who died
Tuesday of lung cancer at age 49.  Greater Media/Boston GM Peter Smyth
takes over the reins as executive VP for the entire group as well.

*Plenty of changes to report at the news desks of NEW HAMPSHIRE's
morning shows this week: Nancy Robbins moved from WQLL (96.5
Bedford-Manchester) down the hall to top-rated WZID (95.7 Manchester)
to replace Tracy Caruso.  Joan Kelly is Robbins' replacement at Cool
96.5.  Up I-93 a bit in Concord, Kate Lloyd leaves the morning news
job at WNNH (99.1 Henniker) to go to work for broadcast consultant
Irwin Pollack.  And there's a new PD at WHOB (106.3) in Nashua; he's
Jack Baldwin, formerly the music director at WSTO (96.1 Owensboro KY)
in the Evansville, Indiana market.

We hear WHDQ (106.1 Claremont) is leaning heavily towards classic rock
and away from the newer stuff these days.

And we note the passing of Chris Connors, formerly with the Alan
Baxter morning show on WGIR-FM (101.1 Manchester).  Connors reportedly
took his own life on February 1.  He was 34.

*The new calls for WCRB's new classical outlet in RHODE ISLAND?  We
hear WCRI will replace WVBI on the 95.9 Block Island outlet once a new
automation system is installed soon.  

*WNTY in Southington, CONNECTICUT is being sold to ADD Media, the
Massachusetts-based group that owns leaed-time WRCA (1330
Waltham-Boston), WLYN (1360 Lynn), and WJYT (1320 Attleboro) in the
Bay State.  Sale price for the 990 facility is reported at $850,000.

There's a new program director at WKSS (95.7 Hartford), but she should
have no trouble remembering the station's nickname.  Tracy Austin
comes to Hartford's Kiss from KIIS in Los Angeles (102.7), where she
served as assistant PD and music director.

*St. Johnsbury, VERMONT has three licensed stations, plus three more
across the river in New Hampshire and two other commercial stations in
outlying Vermont communities.  That's a lot of radio for a very small
town -- and as it is, not one of those stations can afford to be live
and local outside of drivetime.  So why is the FCC proposing to add
100.3 as a class A allocation?  Beats us.

While we're at it, we note that the FCC is also, according to the fine
folks at M Street Journal, proposing to add:

>93.7A in Lancaster, New Hampshire, a town of 1800 people where the
lone AM station (WLGW 1490) went dark a few years back and one FM
station just recently signed on.

>97.3A in "Mount Washington, N.H.," which isn't a community at all,
just a very, very high spot to put a radio tower -- which is why this
"community" is already home to grandfathered superpower WHOM (94.9)
and the transmitter of WPKQ (103.7 Berlin, or is it North Conway
now?).

>97.5A in Delhi, N.Y., population 3000 and already served by WDHI
(100.3) and several other nearby stations.  The 97.5A channel was to
have gone to WDLA (92.1 Walton) to clear the way for WKGB (92.5
Susquehanna PA-Binghamton) to raise its power, but WKGB's application
was withdrawn last year.

>107.1A in Walton, N.Y. -- Oh yeah, why not add another FM channel in
Walton, anyway?  With 3300 people, the existing AM and FM services of
WDLA, not to mention nearby stations in Delhi, Oneonta, Sidney, and
Deposit, can't possibly be enough, right?

NERW's thinking of buying stock in satellite-programming services,
which seem to be the only entities that profit from allocations like
these.

*New England's northernmost TV station is getting new owners.  Max
Media is buying WAGM (Channel 8), the Presque Isle station that's
affiliated with ABC, NBC, and CBS (although in fairness, CBS is the
only network whose programs are regularly seen on WAGM).

A hearty congratulations to George Hale, who came to WABI (910) in
Bangor in February of 1959 to be the station's morning man.  Forty
years later, he's still doing mornings at WABI, and the station
celebrated this month.  Hale also does sports commentary for former
sister station WABI-TV (Channel 5), which held a celebration of its
own.

*Up in Canada, the CRTC will open hearings next Monday on the future
of 690 and 940 in Montreal.  The former is already vacant, and the
latter will go silent in March, as the CBC moves its programming to FM
in Montreal.  Applicants for the channels include existing stations
CKVL (850, wants 690) and CIQC (600, wants 940), Hull-based Radio
Nord, which wants to make both frequencies into country stations, and
the CBC, which (after telling the CRTC that nobody listens to AM
anymore and it needed FM signals to be heard) wants 690 back after all
to start a new all-news service.  NERW is enjoying that 690 frequency
for the moment; we've heard WZAP Bristol VA, WNZK Westland MI, WOKV
Jacksonville FL, and Radio Recuerdo from Bogota, Colombia, just to
name a few -- and another nearby DXer has reported hearing CBU
Vancouver one recent night.  With a local on 950 down the street,
we're not expecting quite as much when 940 goes dark next month...and
we're trying not to think about what we'll listen to on the way to
work when CBL Toronto vacates 740 at year's end.

*Ratings, one last time: Here's the bottom of the barrel for the Fall
book...and in just a few weeks we'll start in on the Winter 12+
numbers.

The diaries in the ELMIRA book moved back towards Chemung County this
time out -- at least, that's the only explanation we can find for
Bath's WCKR (a station that cannot be heard in most of the Elmira
market) slipping from a 10.7 to a 1.7 in six months.  Also dropping in
a big way was WVIN Bath, another station that's out in that part of
Steuben County that really should be a different market entirely.
Leading the book this time was CHR WLVY, which rose to a tie for first
place with CHR WNKI, the undisputed leader last Spring.  Climbing in
the ratings were a few stations whose signals don't go much beyond
Elmira (and Corning on a good day): AC WENY-FM in third, country WOKN
in fourth, country WPGI in fifth, and oldies WGMM in sixth.

UTICA liked its country music, with simulcast WFRG/WRUN staying a
solid first place, followed by AC WLZW, rocker WOUR, and news-talk
WIBX.  

Up in Maine, the top station in AUGUSTA this time out was oldies
WABK/WIGY, which knocked country WEBB/WTVL out of the top spot despite
a good book for "B-98.5."  The "Moose" combo of WMME/WEZW landed in
third, followed by country WKCG (and its new simulcast on WCME
Boothbay Harbor), Portland's WBLM, and Skowhegan's WTOS.

*And that's it for this week; we'll take another run down the I-90
corridor from Rochester to western Massachusetts early next week, and
we'll tell you what we hear (including the answer we've all been
waiting for about the new format on 1450 Rome!) next Friday...

- -=Scott Fybush - NorthEast Radio Watch - (c) 1999=-

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